LA Fires: Jan 2025

As this WP article points out, it's very unlikely that LAers would accept the mass removal of palm trees, despite it being a smart move from a fire-mitigation perspective. Still, look at that clip in front of the McDonald's -- those look like hurricane-level gusts.

Alternate link if that ^^ doesn't work.
 
This linked article was the surprising one to me.
Ventura ranks as the fastest-warming county in the Lower 48 states.
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Santa Barbara County, the main subject of the article, is similar. I have commented before that the most noticeable change in SoCal weather since I was a kid is the decrease in fog/Gray May/June Gloom. That is a major feature of Ventura/Santa Barbara climate, so its decrease might have greater impact than in L.A./Orange/San Diego counties.

North of Point Conception the ocean is much colder and I believe the fog still dominates that climate, particularly April-July as described at the Monterey Aquarium.

My street in Glendale, immediately below the Verdugo Mountains, is lined with palm trees, though Glendale trims them every year.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
This linked article was the surprising one to me.
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Their Methodology includes "The Washington Post used the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Divisional Database (nClimDiv), which provides monthly temperature data at the national, state and county level between 1895 and 2018 for the Lower 48 states."

I remember hearing that Carson City was most affected by warming temperatures, but maybe that's old news.

Article from March 2021 says "The Carson City news was so shocking that NBC picked it up and broadcast it nationally: an analysis by the Associated Press, using 30 years of federal records, named Carson City as the fastest warming city in the United States. Two years later, in 2016, Reno was named the fastest warming city in America. "

Article from July 2022 includes "Since 1970, summer temperatures in Reno, Nevada, have risen 10.9 degrees, making it the nation’s fastest-warming city, according to Climate Central, a nonprofit research group.

Ranked second is Las Vegas, Nevada, which has seen an increase of 5.8 degrees. Boise, Idaho, follows in third at 5.6 degrees."
 
I read comments like those tseeb saw, made about Phoenix a lot. Great Basin/desert environments seem extra sensitive to urban heat island effects in the summer. Reno, Boise, Vegas and Phoenix have all seen explosive population growth and building development since 1970. It should be possible to compare those to similar climate small towns that have not urbanized much.
jamesdeluxe said:
If that happens to us, I'll send Tony an invoice.
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As mentioned before our homeowners insurance is up 156% since 2019. I am not looking forward to the next bill in November.
 
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A poignant story about Altadena: LINK
 
It was interesting to read the above story, ensuing from Pasadena's school history.
In 1970, Pasadena became the first non-Southern city ordered to desegregate its schools......In 1970, white students represented a little over half of the enrollment in Pasadena's public schools. By the time of the research cited in the search results, their representation had dropped to 16%, even though they still constituted 53% of the district's population.
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Even though I grew up in nearby San Marino, I was in private schools starting in 5th grade and graduating in 1970.
 
I had not seen any of the Palisades Fire area until I went to Zuma Beach last Friday. Here is an excellent zoomable map documenting Palisades Fire damage. Friday was the first day of Dine L.A.'s two week restaurant promotions. I couldn't resist this lobster roll special overlooking Malibu Beach.
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Driving east from there I soon reached the homes on the beach side of PCH which had burned down, leaving an occasional cement wall.
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Even more than in Altadena, these homes surely caught fire from each other as there is rarely any space between them. Driving along PCH I saw nothing on the inland hillsides. Out of view far above are some houses, but they are spaced and from the map less than half of them burned.

Occasionally there were surviving beach houses, usually in a small cluster like starting at far left of this pic.
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This was one of the few places debris had not been cleared 6 months later.
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As in Altadena, here are some burned out cars.
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Approaching Topanga Canyon Blvd. the beachfront is narrower so most of the houses were built on cement pilings.
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Only the pilings remain.

As I turned inland there are charred tree skeletons on the right hillside.
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Per the map there is a neighborhood on top of that hillside with 80+% destruction similar to the area I drove through in Altadena.

Comparable zoomable damage map for Eaton Fire.
 
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